The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for treating a tissue and in particular, for dehydrating, electro-oxidizing, or electro-reducing a material of the tissue. The present invention also relates to creation and administration of a fluidic therapeutic agent into the tissue.
Back joint disc or tendon pain is a common and potentially debilitating ailment that affects an estimated 80% of the worldwide population at least once in a lifetime. In many instances, the cause of the pain can be attributed to a degenerated intervertebral disc that has further deteriorated into a condition known as disc herniation. This occurs when the disc nucleus pulposus extrudes through a tear or fissure in the outer lining of the disk, thereby exerting pressure on spinal nerves. The compression caused by the herniated nucleus leads to inflammation and is directly responsible for the pain felt, which in some cases extends down the leg (also referred to as sciatica). Available treatments for this type of back pain vary according to the severity of the hernia. If mild, the patient's condition can be treated with rest and inactivity for an extended period of time. However, for patients suffering from a severe herniation or who do not respond to non-invasive treatment (pharmacological and/or physical therapy), surgical intervention is often recommended. With this invasive treatment come several disadvantages such as: i) irreversibility of the procedure; ii) formation of scar tissue; iii) slower recovery time; iv) longer hospital stays; v) risk of infection.
Since the late 1950s, many attempts have been made to treat sciatica and lower back pain, by reducing the volume of the disc, with minimally invasive percutaneous procedures to avoid surgery. Well known treatments, for example, are percutaneous discetomy, percutaneous plasma disc decompression (nucleoplasty), intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET), and percutaneous intradiscal radiofrequency thermocoagulation (PIRT). However, the high costs of these procedures have kept researchers looking for another alternative. Unfortunately, these conventional treatments use procedures that ablate, burn, cut, and that are relatively harsh for the target tissues, and often for surrounding tissues, while attempting to reduce volume of the target tissues.
For other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or a repetitive injury through sports or occupation, such as tennis elbow, frozen shoulder, or house maids knee, inflammation can develop between the two surfaces that are involved in allowing joint function, such as a tendon and the sheath or lubricated tube in which that tendon moves. Inflammation such as bursitis in the knee shoulder hip, or other anatomic bursa may benefit from the administration of a therapeutic agent such as oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen. Such inflammation includes epicondylitis, and other tendonitis and bursitis, including the wrist, hand and the tendon sheaths of the hand and wrist. Inflammation can occur at a site where a tendon or a ligament insert to bone or pass through a sheath from trauma, tension, over use or disease.
Inflammation can develop through pathologies of any joint, and these may include the inflammatory arthropatic conditions of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and the like, or osteoarthritis. Joints that are subject to these maladies and that are amenable to the administration of a therapeutic agent such as oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen include the synovial joints such as the temperomandibular joint, the hip joint, knee joint, ankle joint, elbow joint or sacro-iliac joint. Vertebral facet and sacro-iliac joints may also benefit. Inflammation of joints in the hand, wrist and feet with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis or a repetitive injury through sports or occupationally caused injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, may likewise benefit from treatment.
The inflammatory and arthritic or degenerative conditions discussed and described above are usually treated with a combination of anti-inflammatory agents such as ibuprofen, or more powerful drugs such as steroids or chemotherapy such as methotrexate. It is a common medical practice to inject steroid medications or lidocaine directly into the inflamed tissue or joint. This is often done repeatedly. These drugs can be associated with side effects of infection and even death from gastric ulcer bleeding or immunosurpression and infection. Some skilled in the art believe that ozone therapy whether with oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a gas or dissolved in a liquid has advantages over the current practices.
Lavage of a surgical space prior to placement of a permanent surgical implant such as a hip or knee prosthesis, or pacemaker or treatment of an infected joint can be facilitated by the use of oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a sterilizing substance. Similarly, a colostomy stoma can be created such that the adhesive disk is infused with oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a gas or dissolved in a liquid to aid in healing and inhibit infection. The post surgical recovery from sternotomy after cardiac surgery is often complicated by wound infection. Placement of a resorbable catheter in the wound that could be irrigated with oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a gas or oxygen dissolved in a liquid would aid healing. Indeed, any wound could have a resorbable multisided hole catheter placed in it to allow oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen to be injected through it. This would have anti-infective, analgesic, and wound-healing properties thereby shortening recovery time and decreasing complication rates after surgery.
Endoscopic procedural infusion of ozone and trans catheter infusion of ozone can be used to inhibit the complications from endoscopic medical intervention or image guided or non-image guided catheter based intervention, such as for example, in endoscopic evaluation of the pancreatic duct.
Dental injection of oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a gas or dissolved in a liquid may augment the preparation and repair of dental cavities, and aid in reduction of root canal inflammation or periodontal disease.
There are veterinary applications of minimally invasive administration of oxygen-ozone mixtures or excited, energetic, pure oxygen as a gas or dissolved in a liquid in animals diseased with disc and degenerative syndromes. Few other options are available in that arena. Some animals are destroyed due to debilitating pain from disc disease, and arthritis.